Jeremiah 17–19

The Sin of Judah

17“The sin of Judah is written with ^ra pen of iron; with a point of diamond it is engraved on ^sthe tablet of their heart, and on ^tthe horns of their altars, ²while ^utheir children remember their altars and their ^vAsherim, ^wbeside every green tree and on the high hills, ^3xon the mountains in the open country. ^yYour wealth and all your treasures I will give for spoil as the price of your high places for sin throughout all your territory. ⁴You shall loosen your hand from your heritage that I gave to you, ^zand I will make you serve your enemies in a land that you do not know, ^afor in my anger a fire is kindled that shall burn forever.”

⁵Thus says the Lord:

“Cursed is the man ^bwho trusts in man

and makes flesh his strength,¹

whose heart turns away from the Lord.

^6cHe is like a shrub in the desert,

^dand shall not see any good come.

He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness,

in ^ean uninhabited salt land.

^7f“Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,

^gwhose trust is the Lord.

^8hHe is like a tree planted by water,

that sends out its roots by the stream,

and does not fear when heat comes,

for its leaves remain green,

and is not anxious in the year of drought,

for it does not cease to bear fruit.”

⁹The heart is deceitful above all things,

and desperately sick;

who can understand it?

¹⁰ⁱ“I the Lord search the heart

^jand test the mind,²

^kto give every man according to his ways,

according to the fruit of his deeds.”

¹¹Like the ^lpartridge that gathers a brood that she did not hatch,

so is ^mhe who gets riches but not by justice;

ⁿin the midst of his days they will leave him,

^oand at his end he will be a fool.

¹²A glorious throne set on high from the beginning

is the place of our sanctuary.

¹³O Lord, ^pthe hope of Israel,

^qall who forsake you shall be put to shame;

those who turn away from you^{3 r}shall be written in the earth,

for ^sthey have forsaken ^tthe Lord, the fountain of living water.

Jeremiah Prays for Deliverance

^14uHeal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed;

save me, and I shall be saved,

for ^vyou are my praise.

^15wBehold, they say to me,

“Where is the word of the Lord?

Let it come!”

¹⁶I have not run away from being your shepherd,

nor have I desired the day of sickness.

^xYou know ^xwhat came out of my lips;

it was before your face.

¹⁷Be not a terror to me;

^yyou are my refuge in the day of disaster.

^18zLet those be put to shame who persecute me,

but let me not be put to shame;

^zlet them be dismayed,

but let me not be dismayed;

^abring upon them the day of disaster;

destroy them with double destruction!

Keep the Sabbath Holy

¹⁹Thus said the Lord to me: “Go and stand in the People’s Gate, by which ^bthe kings of Judah enter and by which they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem, ²⁰and say: ‘Hear the word of the Lord, ^byou kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, who enter by these gates. ²¹Thus says the Lord: Take care for the sake of your lives, and ^cdo not bear a burden on the Sabbath day or bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem. ²²And do not carry a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath ^dor do any work, but ^ekeep the Sabbath day holy, as I commanded your fathers. ²³Yet ^fthey did not listen or incline their ear, ^gbut stiffened their neck, that they ^hmight not hear and receive instruction.

²⁴“ ‘But if you listen to me, declares the Lord, and ^cbring in no burden by the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, but ^ekeep the Sabbath day holy and do no work on it, ²⁵then ⁱthere shall enter by the gates of this city kings and princes who sit on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their officials, the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And this city shall be inhabited forever. ²⁶And people shall come from ^jthe cities of Judah ^kand the places around Jerusalem, ^jfrom the land of Benjamin, ^kfrom the Shephelah, from the hill country, ^kand from ^lthe Negeb, bringing ^mburnt offerings and sacrifices, grain offerings and frankincense, and ^mbringing thank offerings to the house of the Lord. ²⁷But if you do not listen to me, to ^ekeep the Sabbath day holy, ^cand not to bear a burden and enter by the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then I will ⁿkindle a fire in its gates, and it shall ^odevour the palaces of Jerusalem and ^pshall not be quenched.’ ”

The Potter and the Clay

18The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: ²“Arise, and go down to ^qthe potter’s house, and there I will let you hear¹ my words.” ³So I went down to ^rthe potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel. ⁴And the vessel he was making of clay was ^sspoiled in the potter’s hand, and ^the reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do.

⁵Then the word of the Lord came to me: ⁶“O house of Israel, ^ucan I not do with you as this potter has done? declares the Lord. ^vBehold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. ⁷If at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will ^wpluck up and break down and destroy it, ⁸and if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, ^xturns from its evil, ^yI will relent of the disaster that I intended to do to it. ⁹And if at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will ^wbuild and plant it, ¹⁰and if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will relent of the good that I had intended to do to it. ¹¹Now, therefore, say to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: ‘Thus says the Lord, Behold, I am shaping disaster against you and devising a plan against you. ^zReturn, every one from his evil way, and ^aamend your ways and your deeds.’

¹²“But they say, ^b‘That is in vain! We will follow our own plans, and will every one act according to ^cthe stubbornness of his evil heart.’

¹³“Therefore thus says the Lord:

^dAsk among the nations,

Who has heard the like of this?

The virgin Israel

has done ^ea very horrible thing.

¹⁴Does the snow of Lebanon leave

the crags of Sirion?²

Do the mountain waters run dry,³

the cold flowing streams?

^15fBut my people have forgotten me;

they make offerings to ^gfalse gods;

they made them stumble in their ways,

^hin the ancient roads,

and to walk into side roads,

ⁱnot the highway,

¹⁶making their land ^ja horror,

a thing ^jto be hissed at forever.

^kEveryone who passes by it is horrified

^land shakes his head.

^17mLike the east wind ⁿI will scatter them

before the enemy.

^oI will show them my back, not my face,

in the day of their calamity.”

¹⁸Then they said, ^p“Come, let us make plots against Jeremiah, ^qfor the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. ^rCome, let us strike him with the tongue, and let us not pay attention to any of his words.”

¹⁹Hear me, O Lord,

and ^slisten to the voice of my adversaries.

^20tShould good be repaid with evil?

Yet ^uthey have dug a pit for my life.

^vRemember how I stood before you

to speak good for them,

to turn away your wrath from them.

²¹Therefore ^wdeliver up their children to famine;

give them over to the power of the sword;

let their wives become childless ^xand widowed.

May their men meet death by pestilence,

their youths be struck down by the sword in battle.

^22yMay a cry be heard from their houses,

when you bring the plunderer suddenly upon them!

For ^uthey have dug a pit to take me

^zand laid snares for my feet.

²³Yet ^ayou, O Lord, know

all their plotting to kill me.

^bForgive not their iniquity,

nor blot out their sin from your sight.

Let them be overthrown before you;

deal with them in the time of your anger.

The Broken Flask

19Thus says the Lord, “Go, buy ^ca potter’s earthenware ^dflask, and take some of ^ethe elders of the people and some of ^ethe elders of the priests, ²and go out ^fto the Valley of the Son of Hinnom at the entry of the Potsherd Gate, and proclaim there the words that I tell you. ³You shall say, ^g‘Hear the word of the Lord, ^hO kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I am bringing such disaster upon this place that ⁱthe ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle. ^4jBecause the people have forsaken me and have profaned this place by making offerings in it to other gods whom neither they nor their fathers nor the kings of Judah have known; ^kand because they have filled this place with the blood of innocents, ^5land have built the high places of Baal ^lto burn their sons in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, ^mwhich I did not command or decree, nor did it come into my mind— ⁶therefore, ⁿbehold, days are coming, declares the Lord, when this place shall no more be called Topheth, or ^othe Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter. ⁷And in this place ^pI will make void the plans of Judah and Jerusalem, ^qand will cause their people to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hand of those who seek their life. ^rI will give their dead bodies for food to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the earth. ⁸And I will make this city ^sa horror, ^sa thing to be hissed at. Everyone who passes by it will be horrified and will hiss because of all its wounds. ^9tAnd I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and their daughters, and everyone shall eat the flesh of his neighbor ^uin the siege and in the distress, with which their enemies and those who seek their life afflict them.’

¹⁰“Then ^vyou shall break ^wthe flask in the sight of the men who go with you, ¹¹and shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts: So will I break this people and this city, ^xas one breaks a potter’s vessel, ^yso that it can never be mended. ^zMen shall bury in Topheth because there will be no place else to bury. ¹²Thus will I do to this place, declares the Lord, and to its inhabitants, making this city ^alike Topheth. ¹³The houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah—^ball the houses on whose ^croofs offerings have been offered ^dto all the host of heaven, and ^edrink offerings have been poured out to other…